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Show U.S. firmer Will Heaft CommniyiniDsinni i American Food Can Halt Chaos Threatening Europe By BAUKIIAGE Sews Analyst and Commentator. WASHINGTON. The American farmer is going to lick communism! That's what your worried capital is saying today. Ameri-. Ameri-. can representatives abroad and at home are submitting one , report after another which register gains in the Soviet battle to build a Communistic world out of chaos. The reports come In from Prague, from Belgrade, from Sofia, from Budapest, showing how each day the Iron grip of the Russian-dominated secret police Is gradually choking off democracy In the little countries. Reports from Rome tell us of a planned coup of the Moscow-directed Communistic Com-munistic party In Italy to overflow the government there. The open record of the meetings of the United Nations reveals the consistent attempt of the Russian delegation to block the efforts of the struggling, still-free governments in Greece and France. Some American political leaders still look askance at the huge program pro-gram of aid to western Europt tri'V envisioned in the i Marshall plan. J', V Part of the coun- v L try seems unsynv iffo-.h pathetic, or at least indifferent, t'l toward the effort i V to win the "cold J 1 j war" against Hty " Russia with, pure- Tj- 1 y e c o n o m I e ,s weapons, because " H it means sacrl- v;..v, I; flees on the part LJ of the American Baokhage citizen. Some of- flciala in the administration, supporters sup-porters of the Marshall plan in congress, con-gress, and a few diplomats at borne and abroad, are frightened by this attitude. Until recently this correspondent has been pretty much distressed, too. But I feel better after talking with certain officials whose names seldom appear in the news. These men are not cabinet officers, they are not diplomats, they are not the leaders in congress whose fares appear ap-pear in the news pictures and whose adumbrations are quoted in the daily dispatches. They are just the men who do the work for which Uncle Sam "pays the wage." They are paid for knowing about American fsrms and American farmeri. Their consensus con-sensus Is embodied in the first line of this dispatch: The American Amer-ican farmer la going to lick com-, com-, munism. I believe the farmer will do It. not because he knows It will pay him In dollars now, but because he Is going to be convinced before very long that It will pay America. The American Amer-ican farmer will do It by providing pro-viding the food necessary to halt chaos In Europe Just as he proved the verity of the slogan: "Food wlU win the war." The history of Europe since the war is that every government falls when the bread ration is reduced. The men who know tell me that whatever the total amount In goods or dollars demanded by tho Marshall Mar-shall plan, It Is safe to say that two-thirds of it will be for food either the food commodities themselves them-selves or the dollars with which to buy them. American dollars are growing very scarce In Europe but there are three things which the European Euro-pean purchaser hesitates to quit buying grain, coal and fats. Ton will notice that France, when It reduced Its Imports (as an European countries are doing do-ing as their dollars decline) tried to hold on to her grain, coal and edible fats as long as possible. i Even if the Marshall plan were not put into effect In time to provide pro-vide extra dollars, for their grain purchases, there will be a lag of some months before the farmer is touched in his pocketbook. By that time, if nothing is dons, the European Euro-pean countries starve. Free World 1$ at Stakt Exports to Europe already have been cut down. That will affect first employment of people In this country coun-try in such export industries as ra- gio. eiectricai appunnces and like gadgets which can be spared. It is quite possible that there may be a sufficient increase meanwhile in employment em-ployment in construction or other domestic industries which will absorb ab-sorb this unemployment and keep up the purchasing power of the consumer con-sumer sufficiently to maintain present pres-ent farm prices. In any case, there probably will be a six months lag before prices are greatly affected. Eventually, the marginal surplus would be touched (if Europe is not stimulated) as it was In 1920. Then, you recall, grain prices dropped, although al-though exports were still heavy. However, the demand at that time was not great enough to absorb the entire American output It Is this "marginal surplus" which decides the prices at home. When the demand de-mand fur the first bushel over and above the domesUc surplus ends, it affects the whole price structure. ' Brfore such a situation arises. It Is firmly believed that the "realistic" side of the picture will be brought home forcibly to America. The average cltl-sen, cltl-sen, as well as the farmer and the exporter and others directly dependent on International trade as a whole, will realize that what Is at stake Is something far greater than the dollar-America's dollar-America's stake In the preserva-tlon preserva-tlon of a free world a world which will perish If Europe Is underfed. Russia has only about one-sixth of the amount of wheat which the United Unit-ed States is able to spare, according accord-ing to current estimates. The United Unit-ed Nations food and agriculture organization or-ganization estimated it as 70 million mil-lion bushels against our 400 milllpn bushels, as stated above. Our own situation, we admit, is not too good. Nevertheless, we ore in a much better position on a competitive com-petitive basis, than Russia. There appears little doubt in the minds of tho men most familiar with the facts that when the full force of this situation and what it means is realized real-ized in this country, Europe may be saved for democracy and the American farmer will have at least two-thirds of the credit due him. , 3 "Please, kid, don't EVER go collective on me." What do the Russians think of "collective farming," commit-nlsed commit-nlsed agriculture under the Soviets? Sovi-ets? Well, I asked a friend of mine, Paul Ward .of the Baltimore Balti-more Sun, who got this story from a Russian, a good Communist, Commu-nist, whom be met In Moscow. After a few vodkas the Russky used to tell stories. This was one: Stalin and Roosevelt were driving through the countryside. A cow got Into the road In front of them and wouldn't move. The driver tried to shoo it away but It wouldn't budge. Finally, Stalin got out, went up to the cow and whispered Into Its ear. The cow gave one frightened look, Jumped over the fence and disappeared In the distance. "What did you say to the cow to make It do that?" Roosevelt asked. Stalin smiled. "Don't tell any-body, any-body, but I said to her: 'If you don't get out of here, but quick, I'll put you on a collective farm!' " |
